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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

AIA MANINAM AIA - Undocumented Migrants vs Illegal Alien

Emigration is the act of leaving one's native country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state, is termed migration. There are many reasons why people might choose to emigrate. Some are for reasons of religious, political or economic freedom or escape. Others have personal reasons such as marriage. Some people living in rich nations with cold climates choose to move to warmer climates when they retire. Many political or economic emigrants move together with their families toward new regions or new countries where they hope to find peace or job opportunities not available to them in their original location. Throughout history a large number of emigrants return to their homelands, often after they have earned sufficient money in the other country. Sometimes these emigrants move to countries with big cultural differences and will always feel as guests in their destinations, and preserve their original culture, traditions and language, sometimes transmitting them to their children. The conflict between the native and the newer culture may easily create social contrasts, generally resulting in an uncomfortable situation for the "foreigners", who have to understand legal and social systems sometimes new and strange to them. Often, communities of emigrants grow up in the destination areas. Emigration had a profound influence on the world in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, when millions of poor families left Europe for the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, the rest of Latin America, Australia and New Zealand. Even though definitions may be vague and vary somewhat, emigration/immigration should not be confused with the phenomenon of involuntary migration, such as instances of population transfer or ethnic cleansing. Motives to migrate can be either incentives attracting people away, known as pull factors, or circumstances encouraging a person to leave, known as push factors, for example:

  • Lack of employment or entrepreneurial opportunities 
  • Lack of political or religious rights 
  • Restrictions on practice of religion 
  • Shortage of farmland; hard to start new farms 
  • Oppressive legal/political conditions 
  • Military draft, warfare 
  • Famine or drought 
  • Cultural fights with other cultural groups 
  • Expulsion by armed force or coercion
  • Better opportunities for acquiring farms for self and children 
  • Cheap purchase of farmland 
  • Instant wealth (as in California Gold Rush) 
  • More job opportunities 
  • Higher pay 
  • Prepaid travel (from relatives) 
  • Better welfare programmes 
  • Better schools 
  • Join friends and relatives who have already moved 
  • Build a new nation 
  • Build religious community 
  • Political freedom
Additional Info:
 
A federal judge -- appointed by now disbarred attorney Bill Clinton -- gave a group of illegal aliens the go ahead to sue the U.S. government for violating their constitutional rights during the operation that led to their apprehension, according to a Washington, D.C. watchdog group.

Ruling that Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and their supervisors can be sued for civil damages, Connecticut federal Judge Stefan Underhill cited the illegal aliens’ story that “defendant officers targeted a primarily Latino neighborhood, arrested people who appeared Latino, detained one plaintiff solely because he spoke Spanish and appeared Latino, and taunted one plaintiff's girlfriend by saying the plaintiffs were being taken to see Mexican singer Juan Gabriel."

The accusations are enough to “plausibly allege” that the federal immigration agents “were motivated by a discriminatory purpose,” Judge Underhill’s 43-page ruling goes on to say.

Underhill refused to dismiss charges against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who captured the illegal immigrants as well as their supervisors, who at the time headed the agency under President George W. Bush, according to officials at Judicial Watch, a non-partisan group that investigates political corruption and crime.

The arrests took place during a 2007 fugitive operation in eastern New Haven, Connecticut. Around 30 people were apprehended in the early-morning operation and more than half were subsequently charged with being in the U.S. illegally.

The eleven aliens suing ICE claim that agents entered their homes without cause, consent or search warrants and that authorities had no reason to assume they lacked legal status.

Their complaint also asserts that the feds deliberately conducted raids in New Haven to retaliate against the city for its well-publicized efforts to accommodate illegal immigrants and maintaining a de facto Sanctuary City policy. A few years ago New Haven became the nation’s first to offer illegal aliens official identification cards so that they can enjoy public services and integrate into the community.

San Francisco followed its lead and began offering illegal immigrants ID cards in 2010.

Emboldened by such protections, illegal aliens have filed a number of lawsuits against U.S. law enforcement agencies in the last few months. Earlier this year a Mexican woman who used a fake identity to work at a landscaping company sued an Arizona sheriff’s department for mistreating her during a workplace raid that led to the arrest of dozens of illegal aliens.

With the help of their advocate pro bono attorneys, illegal aliens have also sued an Ohio sheriff deputy who helped deport a Mexican with false identification cards, a Maryland officer who arrested an illegal Salvadoran and a southern California city (Costa Mesa) for banning them from seeking work on public streets. That lawsuit actually stems from the arrest by local police of a dozen illegal alien day laborers who violated the city’s anti-solicitation ordinance.

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